Events: HSNY Presents, Mechanical Jewels: The Art of the Watch 1500 – 1800

Early watches look deceptively like their modern descendants These early watches were actually indifferent timekeepers, more suited to symbolize time than reliably measure it Although technical advances over the next 200 years improved their performance, it was not until the end of the 18th century that ordinary watches became truly reliable timekeepers.

The earliest watches were probably carried not so much because civilization required portable timekeepers, but rather because of the Renaissance fashion for pendant jewels that served as both display of wealth and talisman Only when the watch was transformed from metaphor into measuring device in the late 18th century did the "Pocket watch" take its familiar modern form By the time he left Christie's, as a Senior Vice President and Head of the Watch and Clock Department, he had organized sales in a variety of fields including watches, clocks, jewelry, silver, and scientific instruments.

He contributed the chapter on 17th and 18th century enamel watches for the Catalogue of European Decorative Arts at the Taft Museum, Cincinnati, and catalogued the Proctor Collection of Watches at the Munson Williams Proctor Art Institute, Utica, New York. . Source